A situation can be said to have reached a condition of saturation when, no matter where you look, you can be sure of seeing an example of it.

The apparently perpetual condition of wholesale political plundering of the public coffers that seems to have become thought of as "the way things are" in "The Garden State" continues to stir dutiful ire when spoken of in the abstract, but actually pinning it down, or leveling a charge that it is taking place appears rare. Many in New Jersey evidently have become content with just having the situation acknowledged, yet have consigned themselves to never having it corrected! As long as they admit that they're raping me and my family, a common refrain seems to go, I don't mind letting them do it! This is reflected in, for example, the persistence of "pay to play". It is bemoaned and condemned by those in government, yet all they suggest for answering the problem is a taxpayer funded vacation that they call a "seminar", built around "teaching politicians to recognize when they are taking money that they aren't entitled to, and calling it bad"! Then, just last week, the state's highest court ruled that it was perfectly permissible for wealthy contractors to essentially bribe their way into lucrative contracts through the use of "campaign contributions"! And, all along, the people sit still for their money being taken in increasing property taxes and an ever-expanding system of apparently gratuitous, and expensive, traffic fines! In just the last few years, also, such affronts as "luxury taxes" on things like candy, taxes on hotel rooms, and, this year, even a tax on people going into nursing homes have been ruthlessly imposed!

To be sure, every now and then you do see a few individuals hauled in on ethics charges of everything from bribery to extortion to money laundering to obstruction of justice. In the recent past, the sweep of officials in Monmouth Country has become so all-consuming that, when it is over, it seems like only the dog catcher in Rumson will be left on duty! Yet, in spite of all that, bleeding of the taxpayers and looting of the till seems to continue apace! Even to be picking up steam! For all that those supposed plunderers of the public coffers who were picked up, proposed fees and taxes have only increased, to meet the apparently still burgeoning demand by criminal politicians for money to steal from the public! Indeed, when corrupt politicians get busted, these days, it seems only to get them out of the way, so they don't bump elbows with even more powerful criminal politicos, while robbing taxpayer funds!

A case in point, too, can be the Wednesday, August 3, 2005 edition of The Star Ledger. There are few demonstrations of the pernicious and apparently overwhelming nature of political theft of taxpayer money that are more dramatic than the fact that no fewer than three or four separate aspects of the matter can be found within a few pages of each other! It is no longer the case that the corruption might be so clandestine as to take several months to piece together! Now, you see several different examples of the condition in the same edition of the newspaper! They aren't identified as related - the media still seem willing whores of big money! - but they all can be seen as the putrid spawn of the same filth-ridden parent!

The Essex Briefs section, for example, holds what seems a cunningly hidden notice of yet another unethical siphoning off of "open space" funds! "Essex offers $3 million from open space fund" describes grants being offered to projects that fall under the rubric of "open space". Instituted as a supposedly well-meaning response to theft of land through development, "open space" has become apparently yet another scam in the arsenal of swindles used by crooked politicians! Money appears to have been regularly funneled into patently illegitimate projects, many of which seemed to have been geared toward improving undeveloped land at taxpayer expense, then declaring it not to be "earning its keep", then surreptitiously selling it to developers for less than the state paid, already cleared for development, courtesy of the money from the taxpayers! The projects listed in the Ledger article seem a characteristic example of this evident connivery! In the article, $3 million are described as earmarked for a variety of projects which, in the past, are described as having included such things as "the preservation of Military Park in Newark". If you have ever taken the time to look, you would readily realize that Military Park does not even remotely fall under the heading of an "open space" project! It isn't even a park, really. Basically, it's just two parcels, one sporting a swath of grass surrounding a concrete walkway modeled to resemble a sword, when viewed from high up; and a block with some token trees and greenery, cut through by walkways, and even containing, apparently, a number of buildings! Military Park is no more a real "park" than any of the concrete buildings around it! And, what's more, as an integral part of the cityscape, upkeep of Military Park should rightfully be paid out of normal operating expenses for the city of Newark. But, what with Sharpe James apparently funneling every dollar he doesn't steal into his evidently criminal side-stepping of normal procedure to get the Newark Arena built - including, it seems, illegally appropriating monies the city should get for upkeep from Port Authority for their use of the Newark Airport! - it's not surprising that he should, essentially, engage in "double-dipping" to get money to keep the city's dilapidation from calling attention to his machinations!

And this is only one example of the evident chronic collusion that is draining the people's money away. One example of the expanding abuse that it will bring can be seen in the article, "No escaping a gas tax hike", in the editorial section. There, like the evident snivelin quisling to corrupt government that they are, The Ledger takes the side of those in government who insist that, along with the other taxes with which New Jersey residents are saddled, an increase in tax on gasoline should also be approved! The literally moronic "excuse" involves an $8 billion federal appropriation for roads in the state. To be eligible, though, the paper claims, New Jersey must provide matching funds of its own. And there, the Star Ledger says, the state falls short. The newspaper is willing to engage in the foul ersatz of "due diligence" that consists of gleefully admitting that government engages in wholesale robbing of the discretionary fund, then hurriedly shuffling the issue aside as, essentially, "spilt milk"! In order to meet the $8 billion from the government, the state has to resort to an increase of at least 5 cents a gallon on gasoline, The Ledger obediently parrots. Leaving aside the righteous indignation that a righteous newspaper would engage in, over the apparent customary habit of plundering the taxpayers' money in the discretionary fund, The Ledger, among other things, apparently calculatedly ignores the fact that the state doesn't have to match the funds offered by government! It's not stipulated that New Jersey accept the $8 billion from Washington! They could even agree only to accept that portion of $8 billion that state funds can match! Are they implying that Washington is in such a hurry to bleed out money from their own coffers to corrupt local politicos that they wouldn't welcome saving a little bit from state appropriations? What's more, it's going to be hard for Trenton to convince anybody that the horrendous condition of New Jersey's roads is the result of the claimed $6 billion in infrastructure funds put into them last year! For that matter, if anything like the billions of dollars the government claims is put into the roads really was spent there, New Jersey wouldn't have to engage in the outlandish
Adopt-A-Highway program, seeking funding from outside government for the state's roads! There seems little, if any, reason to doubt that funds for infrastructure is viewed by New Jersey government as nothing more than a cookie jar, to be raided for personal aggrandizement! Any time any money goes towards the roads, and not cocaine to go up some politician's nose, it seems that it's in the form of an obscenely overpriced project by Schoor & DePalma. In addition to an apparent pattern of double and even triple billing, for patently unnecessary overbuilding along roads in Essex County, Schoor & DePalma also have the distinction of renovating a bridge in Cranford so that it was seven inches too low! Apparently, worthless construction by Schoor & DePalma is a regular drain for taxpayer money!

This is evidenced by the fact that, not in this edition of The Star Ledger, but one the week before, Schoor & DePalma were listed as evident conspirators in a massive bribery scheme, also originating out of Monmouth County!

Tragically, in the same vein, on the page before the article on the purported "necessary" increase in the gas tax, can be found the article "Former political insider admits bribery in Monmouth scandal"!

And, on the same page as the gas tax article is a hint at what can be done to take the weight off the taxpayers. In the article, "Reason for hope on pension abuse", Jaroslav Havel, of West Caldwell, cheers the decision to strip former Essex County Executive James Treffinger of the bulk of his pension, after his indictment on charges of extortion and obstruction of justice! Instead of the more than $30,000 a year he was to receive, he will receive only about $6,000. Mr. Havel, though, continues on to point out that equally criminal former Essex County Executive Joe D'Alessio should also be stripped of the major part of his pension, and that Governor Codey's brother, who is slated to receive a pension of $98,000 a year, after holding a position - that his brother apparently assigned him to! - for only four months, at well above even standard maximum pay, should not be allowed to receive that much money. In fact, after having essentially scammed the public the way they did, they should receive nothing! They stole from the people, and now the taxpayers are being forced to pay for the "privilege" of being raped! There is nothing that any of these individuals authorized that either was for the public's good, or that made their quality of life any better! Contracts were, evidently, purely for the purpose of using the money that the "beasts of burden" are required to pay, to line the pockets of their criminal friends, for shoddy workmanship, with substandard materials! Even if they received nothing in pension wages, it should be mentioned, they and their families will still be entitled to upwards of $12,000 a year medical benefits! That could easily add up to between $150,000 and a quarter of a million dollars for each criminal politician! Meanwhile, apparently to make sure corrupt politicians can always afford their daily fix of heroin and whores, in the last few days it was announced that government will require former employees to pay more for their health insurance! After working for years for the welfare of the state, something the politicians apparently never did, employees will have to pay what politicians aren't asked to pay, for insurance that is probably far less than what the politicians get! It rather mirrors the situation, a few years ago, in Middletown, when local teachers went out on strike, to protect unfair demands for payment on health insurance, and the township jailed them!

Middletown, incidentally, is in Monmouth!

So is Woodbridge, where disgraced former governor, Jim McGreevey, was mayor! McGreevey, it will be remembered, among other things, put his boy whore, Golan Cipel, in a $100,000 a year job, for apparently doing nothing, along with several other cronies who were also given expensive jobs, just for being his friend!

It doesn't seem a stretch to call it a literal web!

Or a network!

But, if government has nothing but contempt for the welfare of the public, the people have to respect their own rights!

They must flood editors' desks, at newspapers, news magazines, and television and radio stations with letters and emails, demanding that they condemn the wholesale criminality that seems the life's blood of government in New Jersey! Any news organization that holds off on the denunciation that government apparently deserves should be boycotted, as should all the businesses that advertise in them!

They must deluge politicians' desks with emails and letters, ordering them to take action immediately, to rein in the evident rampant criminality, and, more than that, enact steps that make a definitive, measurable improvement in the public's lives that no less than 95% of people in a provably legitimate poll agree to be a betterment! Until they do, the public should boycott any business that any politician is associated with, in any way, even to just owning stock!

And the people should go about starving the evident monster that is New Jersey government of as much money as can be done, legally. They should do everything to avoid driving along the roads along which fines have been doubled! And they should definitely stop indulging in any of the state lotteries No one ever seems to win, and just when can you say you saw any of that money go where it should? It raises, apparently, well in excess of $1.5 billion a year, supposedly for education, yet the state still raises taxes, saying "the schools need it"!

The public should also be more than willing to talk openly, to everyone, about the fact that government seems to exist solely for the purpose of raping the "rank and file" to make criminal cronies of politicians rich! They should also steadfastly insist on never trusting a single word any politician says!

And they should translate this into action by boycotting every single election! When can you remember that a politician came in who did anything for the public? Elections, apparently, are nothing more than a losing game! The public goes out, gives credence to results that were, evidently, decided well ahead of time, then end up raped by whoever the bosses decided should be next in office, and, when that crook got found out, the people took the blame for "electing them"! If the people make enough of a show of a vote of no confidence, it may result, eventually, in something for the people's good coming about! At least, they won't let themselves be the crook's playthings!

Government is supposed to be based on the people! Apparently, it has absolutely nothing to do, now, with the welfare of the public! But, generally unmentioned is the fact that a critical part of government being about the people is the people being a part of government! The public must take it on themselves to be a constant and crucial part of all political action! If they do not, they will give away government to the criminals! The crooks do not steal government from the public, it is inattention of the people that gives government to the crooks!